Issue #973
Including:

From Russ

The Ontarion

Hi All,

Remember last week when I wrote about the frustrations of getting parcels delivered on time and how some of ours were and still are late? I also wrote about the Shaw Cable modem that never turned up (thanks to UPS) and that I had talked to them last Thursday. Well, guess what… the replacement modem landed in our PO box (thanks to C Post) on Saturday morning, just 2 days after being sent. How is that possible when we are still waiting on some things that are ‘in transit’ according to the tracking numbers. Oh well. Of course the new modem turning up meant that I had to tear apart my old home network system and set up the new one. Thats the kind of thing I would have considered to be fun when I was a few years younger, now its the kind of thing that taxes my mental capacity and raises my blood pressure.

Tearing apart an existing home network is easy, just unplug a bunch of wires and cords for the wired side and let networks and passwords fade away on the WiFi side. Then, it all has to be put back together. The new modem is supposed to ‘self activate with Shaw’ and be ready to be connected to within a few minutes of being plugged in. And it was. That’s a good thing. Setting up the wired side was obviously easy, the modem has 2 RJ5 receptacles and we have 2 desktop computers to plug in, hard wired so to speak. The 2.4g side of the wireless WiFi simply needed to be given a name and password. Once that was done all the hand-held devices could be connected to the new system. No problem. There is also a 5.0g side to the WiFi but I have not yet set it up and in fact may not bother. 5.0 is supposed to be faster but at the cost of reduced range it may not be worth the trouble if it isn’t needed. New internet speeds are as promised, this is a 600mbs system and the hard wired desktops are getting around 625 or so download and 25 or so upload, right where they should be. The iPads and phones are on the WiFi system and lower speeds are to be expected, with downloads of around 400 which isn’t too bad at all.

Now the catch. Our old system was set up with 2 WiFi networks because we had both the old modem and an Apple Air router thing. We had been able to plug our old printer into the Apple Air via USB, and the Apple Air was plugged into the modem via USB. The new modem does not have any USB ports so there is now where to hook the printer up to. Come tax time we use our printer a LOT. Now, our old printer is a color inkjet and has served us well for many years but those tiny little ink cartridges have been costing us more per year than we ever paid for the actual printer. The unfortunate solution was to replace the old printer with a WiFi printer, and, to save a bit on ink costs, go with a Laser printer. So, thats what we have done. Ever try to hook up a WiFi printer? Well, thats an adventure in itself. The first thing one must understand is that the included instructions are about as useless as mammaries on a male bovine. A lot of time spent digging though the maker’s website eventually produced both a large PDF version of a somewhat useful user’s guide and thankfully, a video showing step buy step instructions. Eventually, the printer worked. However, this unit, like most these days, also does scanning. Scanning is also important during tax season. Getting the scanner to work was a challenge to say the least. After a lot of mussing and fussing, we can now scan using the computer to control the system but can’t scan FROM the scanner even though it has the little scan panel on the front. But thats ok because there is more control over a given scan when using the computer. We used to use an old laptop with a portable scanner for scanning and still have that option should it be needed as backup. At the time of this writing and as far as I know, everything is working to our satisfaction. And, as far as I can tell, I’ve just bored most of you right out of your minds.

Oh, I almost forgot…. We bought the printer at our local electronic store (London Drugs) and when we got it home we discovered the box already been opened, the printer unpacked and any included paperwork missing. Bummer. The packing etc is what is needed to safely ship these things around. We took it back and got an unopened unit. Not a big deal but just more frustration to put up with, as if we didn’t all need more of that. Oh well.

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Well now, I’ve go an old, a very old, Peter Paul & Mary protest song for this week. The song is about wishing the world was a good place and not torn by war and strife. It’s a fitting song given how things continue to unfold south of the border etc. It’s a song some of us have been playing since we were kids and unfortunately, this song never gets old. It’s called ‘If I Were Free’, give it a listen if you are so inclined.

If I Were Free

doug

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From Russ

Winter

Here it is, half-way through January and no sign of winter! Yes, we’ve had a few snowstorms, but no real winter. (speaking of Point Clark of course).

My dad- always the pessimistic prognosticator would say,

“We’ll pay for it later on”, and he was generally right!

Is it me, or were winters colder and summers hotter when we were kids? It was so terribly hot – we just HAD to go swimming! The nearest swimming hole with a sand beach was miles away in Doon – so that’s where we often went swimming when we lived in Centreville. We travelled light, shorts only, no towels, no shirts, no shoes, and always bare-headed. Can you imagine gravel so hot you’d burn your bare feet if you walked on it? We had no choice but to walk in the dead grass on the shoulder. It was not cool by any means!

After walking for what seemed like many cruel hours, we finally arrived at the pond, and immediately plunged into the cool, green water. Finally having enough, we’d wade ashore only to find we were feeding the ‘blood-suckers’ (leaches). They were slippery, and hard to remove from our legs and body. Somebody suggested shaking some salt on them, and they would immediately release. Good idea, but who carries a salt shaker while swimming? Others suggested touching them with a lighted cigarette – this actually worked! Few people swim while smoking, or smoke while swimming, but sometimes a ‘sun-bather’ would light-up and put the hot weed against the leach – watch it squirm a little, and drop off! Neat.

The Grand River was an attraction any time of year, but mostly in Summer. The average depth of this slow-moving river is 4 feet, but we found holes deep enough to enjoy a cool swim. Getting into the water was always challenging; there were thistles, razor-sharp weeds, Burn-hazel, and likely some poison ivy as well! (and we wearing only shorts!)

Swarms of flies and other tormentors kept us company all the while. Are you one of us who are favourite targets for blood-sucking insects? My dad used to say,

“You must have sweeter-tasting blood”

Every kind of blood-sucking fly accompanied me as I made my way to and from the water; Horse flies, Deer-flies, Bull-flies, Black-flies, wasps and hornets weren’t shy either! But, it was fun!

Your old Uncle Russ.

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THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone!

With all of the recent special occasions I can’t help thinking of the ones that we have bunched up around this time of year. We not only have Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we have Carole’s birthday on December 11th and mine on January 11th, we have our wedding anniversary on January 19th as well. This makes for a bunch of special times to keep track of each year. Its not as if we had much control over the timing with the exception of our wedding date. However, it does make it easier to remember each date with them all in a row like that! My 72nd birthday just passed and we had a lovely “Locked Down” day at home with just the three of us here in the house again just like we’ve been doing since last February! Thanks to covid we didn’t have to share the occasion with any outsiders! But on the other hand, not many outsiders contacted me to say that they remembered my special day either. Not that I’m complaining since I did receive congratulations from a few people in my life that were and are the ones that really matter to me! I guess that’s the important part isn’t it! Carole never misses baking me my favourite cake which happens to be a chocolate layer cake with chocolate icing! This year was no exception to that rule either. My cake was once again an amazing treat and it lasted only the usual four days before there wasn’t a crumb left on the cake platter! We also had an amazing dinner to celebrate the special event. One of my favourite meals is exactly what Carole cooked up for me. She surprised me with a plate filled with pig tails, mashed potatoes and creamed corn! WOW! Lip smacking good to say the least! I grew up on many meats that a lot of kids never had the chance to learn to enjoy. This was because my dad worked at Burns Meats on Guelph St and he was the kind of person that wasn’t afraid to try any kind of food that was put on his plate! Now, I’m not that way inclined but he did introduce me to the few civilized meats that I still like to enjoy. One of which is still my fave, pig tails! The very thought of this dish seems to turn some people off due to the location of them during their time spent growing on their host animals! LOL! Of course that liking doesn’t run in my immediate family! Carole and Adam aren’t fussed on the thought of eating something that was harvested from the back end of a pig! However, my reply to that thought is “even a pig’s ass is pork”, as my dad used to say! LOL! When you think of it, the pig spends most of it’s life wallowing in the mud and excrement that lines the floor of their pens on the farms that they are raised on! So how much closer to their rear end can their tails get than their whole bodies do during their lives on the farm? If you’ve never tried to eat a meal of pig tails, you don’t know what you’re missing! Nowadays, you need only to go on line and search a good recipe for a pig tail dinner. Once you’ve tried them, you will likely be destined to repeat that same meal several times a year! Any good Mennonite cook book will contain a recipe for a pig tail dinner so if you don’t own a computer, pick up one of the many Mennonite cook books and you’ll find a wonderful recipe for one of my favourite dinners.

My b-day celebration also produced a surprise gift from Carole and Adam. A couple of years ago they presented me with a Canon digital camera and for this birthday they gifted me with a new lens for that camera. It is as 75mm to 300mm focal length lens and it makes my bird watching much easier and will continue to produce much better results when I’m attempting to photograph my winged subjects up close! This makes me look forward to spring and the absence of Covid-19 even more than before. I can’t wait till the warm weather arrives!

Getting back to my dad’s taste in meats etc I remember him bringing home many different types of meat that I for one wouldn’t try. A couple of these meats were Beef tongue, beef heart, tripe (Sheep’s stomach, I believe) as well as calf’s brains! Yuck! Now those are a few items that would never touch my plate let alone my taste buds! LOL! My most exotic tastes run to the pig tails and liver and that’s about as strange as my tastes get! Other than those two, I guess Big Macs and Whoppers are about as strange as my taste goes these days and even they don’t see my plate much any more! Due to my restricted diet, my junk food list is extremely limited nowadays! Only on a few special occasions do I even get to deviate from the diets I’m on! Oh well as long as I can have those special differences once in a while, it makes them even more special! Guess I’ll have to be satisfied with enjoying my pig tails once or twice a year. I hope I’ve given you all a new dish to try in the coming year. If you are brave enough to try these porcine delights, please let me know if and how much you enjoy them!

I know there will be a couple of you that will rush right out to your local market in search of them and give them a try! SO for now, as Roy Rogers used to say, Happy Trails and “Happy Tails!”

That’s about all I have for this week folks! Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>
The next time you’re sitting down to a lovely Ham dinner, remember how close it was to the pig’s tail when still attached to the animal!

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